Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon is seeking reelection in November, even as his prosecutorial staff revolts.
This week, Deputy District Attorney Shea Sanna became the latest prosecutor to file a whistleblower lawsuit against Mr. Gascon. Nearly two dozen deputies are now pursuing claims against their defendant-friendly boss.
Mr. Sanna, a six-year prosecutor, said he was demoted, transferred and suspended twice as part of a “vendetta” by the Gascon administration. He was allegedly suspended for “misgendering” a convicted child sex predator who admitted in jailhouse recordings to faking his transgender status.
“For the past two years, Gascon has tried to silence me,” Mr. Sanna said in a statement. “He has suspended me without pay, threatened my livelihood, attacked my credibility, tarnished my reputation, demoted me, investigated me, and harassed me, all so I would obey him; so I would stay quiet; so I wouldn’t speak up on behalf of those most affected by his misguided political policies.”
Vanessa Dunn, a spokesperson, said the district attorney’s office “does not comment on pending litigation or personnel matters.”
The high-profile lawsuit was filed with Mr. Gascon in a tough reelection fight against former federal prosecutor Nate Hochman, a former Republican running as an independent who has accused the Democratic incumbent of stoking a crime wave with his “dangerous pro-criminal policies.”
“Yet another LA County Deputy DA is suing George Gascon for retaliation — the record 21st prosecutor to sue the county over Gascon’s unfair practices,” Mr. Hochman said Wednesday on X. “When I’m DA, I will fight crime — not my own prosecutors.”
Mr. Gascon was elected in 2020 as part of a wave of liberal prosecutors backed by Democratic megadonor George Soros. Mr. Soros, the largest single donor to Mr. Gascon’s 2020 campaign, contributed $6 million via super PACs, according to the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund.
Mr. Gascon may have worn out his welcome in Los Angeles County.
He took 25% of the vote in the crowded March 5 nonpartisan primary, besting Mr. Hochman at 16% but falling far short of the 50% needed to avoid a November runoff.
Mr. Sanna said he first ran afoul of the Gascon administration in 2021 when he was assigned to the case of Hannah Tubbs, born James Tubbs, who was charged at age 25 with sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl in a bathroom. Tubbs was 17 at the time.
Despite Tubbs’ lengthy rap sheet, Tubbs was charged as a juvenile under Mr. Gascon’s Special Directive 20-09, which barred moving juvenile cases to adult court and limited prosecutors to one filed charge per incident.
Mr. Sanna obtained jailhouse recordings of Tubbs bragging about the crime and joking with his father about his “transition.” The recordings made it clear that “Tubbs planned to claim insincerely that he was transgender in order to obtain favorable housing in a women’s juvenile facility,” the lawsuit said.
Mr. Sanna sent the recordings to Tubbs’ rehabilitation team. The next day, the Gascon administration removed him from the case.
The recordings resulted in a spate of negative press coverage. “Sanna’s supervisor warned him that the Gascon administration was ‘coming for him’ and advised him to save everything and be careful,” said the complaint.
Shortly thereafter, the Gascon administration accused Mr. Sanna of misgendering Tubbs by referring to the defendant as James, not Hannah. Mr. Sanna argued that it was a colleague, not he, who made the reference. Even so, Mr. Sanna was slapped with a five-day suspension without pay.
Tubbs, who served two years in a juvenile facility, pleaded guilty in 2023 to voluntary manslaughter and robbery for beating a man to death with a rock in 2019. The inmate, who still goes by Hannah, is serving time in the California Institution for Men in Chino.
Anthony Fusaro, the Dhillon Law Group lawyer representing Mr. Sanna, said his client “did nothing but seek to uphold his ethical and legal duties to present all relevant evidence to the court.”
“Yet because this evidence conflicted with D.A. Gascon’s recently enacted policies and public statements, Gascon sought to suppress it,” Mr. Fusaro said. “When Mr. Sanna informed his supervisors and the public of Gascon’s suppression efforts, Gascon responded with a relentless retaliation campaign against Mr. Sanna that persists to this day.”
See the lawsuit here: https://t.co/kMfTelmczb
— Dhillon Law Group (@dhillonlaw) August 13, 2024
In 2023, Mr. Sanna received another unpaid suspension for referring to a gang of Black defendants who attacked a Black person as “a pack of hyenas.” The comment was deemed racist, though Mr. Sanna denies any racial implications.
Also last year, Mr. Sanna was demoted and transferred from the Antelope Valley office to the Santa Clarita office. He was passed over for a promotion despite positive recommendations and a perfect examination score.
Other prosecutors have filed retaliation complaints against Mr. Gascon. In at least two cases, they received seven-figure payouts.
Shawn Randolph, former head deputy of the juvenile division, received a $1.5 million jury verdict in March 2023 after accusing Mr. Gascon of retaliating against her for challenging his directive to minimize charges against juvenile offenders.
Another veteran prosecutor, Richard Doyle, settled a retaliation claim against Mr. Gascon for $1.1 million in 2021, according to the Southern California Record.
After the Randolph verdict, Mr. Gascon’s office said it was “disappointed by the jury’s verdict, and [stood] by our decision to reassign this and other attorneys to new positions within the office.”
At least three Los Angeles deputy district attorneys have publicly endorsed Mr. Hochman, as has the Association of Deputy District Attorneys.
Polling in the district attorney’s race has been thin, but an internal poll released June 25 by the Hochman campaign showed the challenger leading Mr. Gascon by 50% to 25%.
In January, the Los Angeles Times endorsed Mr. Gascon, calling him the “right D.A. in the right place at the right time.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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